


The Sky Painted in Purple, Crimson, and Gold

by yujacheong



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Battle Couple, F/F, Post-Canon, Real Life, Retribution, Storming the castle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-04 04:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20464667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujacheong/pseuds/yujacheong
Summary: When Anthy left Ohtori Academy, she’d intended to leave for good. Utena, though, has other ideas.“I want to get that bastard, Anthy,” Utena announced one day. “We can’t just allow him to keep hurting people with impunity.”





	The Sky Painted in Purple, Crimson, and Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Panny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panny/gifts).

When she’d left Ohtori Academy behind, she’d never intended to return. There had been great personal significance to stepping over the threshold demarcated by those elegant, wrought iron gates. At last, at long, _long_ last, she’d chosen Utena and the real world over her big brother and his twisted games, and as far as Anthy was concerned, her decision in this regard had been final.

She didn’t like to remember what it had taken to find Utena again. It’d taken years, long, _long_ years, and at times she’d felt so very frightened and alone. Surviving, never mind thriving, was hard in a cold and indifferent world. And she’d been young and naïve and all too easy for the unscrupulous to exploit. Although Anthy never, ever, not for one, single second, regretted her decision to leave, during the darkest, loneliest nights she was willing to admit to herself that she might have been better off – or at least _safer_ – if she’d remained asleep.

But no. Being with Utena had been the one great, good, glorious thing about Ohtori Academy, and finding her again, being with her again, free from her brother’s malign influence, was worth every difficulty and little indignity. So what if their flat was cramped and airless and crawling with roaches? So what if they couldn’t afford to eat out at restaurants or to go on tropical holidays? So what if secretarial work was unstimulating?

Utena was still Utena, and Utena was still brave.

“I want to get that bastard, Anthy,” Utena announced one day. “We can’t just allow him to keep hurting people with impunity.”

In the real world, battles of good against evil weren’t fought in dueling arenas with silver swords and roses pinned to jacket lapels. Justice was achieved through different means, with evidence and corroborated testimonial and rule of law, but maybe Utena was right: Maybe she and Utena – with their lousy flat and cheap food and boring jobs – could do something, a small something, a modest something, to make their world, _the real world_, a better place.

It would mean returning to Ohtori Academy. It would mean confronting her brother and formally accusing him of his crimes. It would mean exposing herself to scrutiny, to criticism, to see old sins and shame paraded before unsympathetic eyes. It would mean reliving the past once more, reliving it vividly.

“Yes, okay. Let’s do it. Together,” Anthy replied.

She had no illusions about the difficulties which lay in their path. She was ready for what was in store. She accepted the possibility that, in the end, they might not win. But win or lose, they would do it together. _They would be together._ And as they stepped out their front door to face the new day, for a moment, just a brief moment, Anthy imagined herself and Utena on flying horses, donning armor, wielding lances, charging a shining castle floating upside down high in the sky. That sky she envisioned at sunrise, painted brilliant colors of purple, crimson, and gold. Yes, that would be a new day, indeed.


End file.
